Secretary Clinton Meets With Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski

"...It is such a pleasure for me to welcome not only a colleague, but someone who has become a friend over the last years and whose opinion I value greatly on not just matters related to Poland and Europe, but indeed global issues as well. I look forward to a productive meeting and the opportunity to reaffirm the absolutely unbreakable friendship and alliance between the United States and Poland.

"We have a full agenda that will concentrate on three essential areas: building our mutual security, expanding prosperity, and promoting democracy. On security, we will discuss America's unwavering Article 5 commitment to Poland and to all NATO allies. As was announced by our two presidents in December, we plan to establish a new permanent U.S. air detachment in Poland, build missile defenses in Poland, and as agreed at the NATO summit, develop a contingency plan in the region. And I want to thank Poland and in particular the minister for the very strong contributions that you have made to the fight against extremism in Afghanistan."

Secretary Clinton also spoke to Poland's history and the example it sets as more people around the world demand that their voices be heard. The Secretary said:

"...Since the days of the Gdansk Shipyards and Solidarity, the Polish people have known that no country can be fully secure and prosperous unless its people have a voice in their own affairs. And in just two decades, Poland has built a transparent and representative government with a vital vibrant civil society. And in fact, Minister, Poland serves as a model for others to learn from. Government officials and civil rights activists from Afghanistan, Jordan, Egypt, and elsewhere have visited to learn firsthand about your inspiring transition to democracy.

"I also greatly appreciate Poland's partnership in reaching out to the people of Belarus, including holding a donors conference for civil society organizations there. And I look forward to supplementing our strategic dialogue with a democracy dialogue, which will further our cooperation in supporting emerging democracies around the world."

You can read the full transcript of Secretary Clinton's remarks with Foreign Minister Sikorski here. The Secretary and Foreign Minister signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cooperation in Clean and Efficient Energy, which you can read about here.

Comments

Comments

Andy

March 4, 2011

Andy in Europe writes:

The United States must acknowledge that NATO is a European organization with origin, composition, military and political headquarters all in the heart of Europe.

NATO is PRIMARILY a European defence alliance: "The European Allies". 25 out of 28 NATO members are entirely European, only 2 out of 28 members (US and Canada) are non-European and only 1 member (Turkey) is located partly in Europe and partly in Asia, which sums up to the 28 NATO countries.

21 out of these 25 entirely European NATO countries are at the same time core States within the political European Union (EU+NATO). However, EU is also constituted by an additional 6 European democratic, secular, capitalist states traditionally non-aligned to the US foreign policy branded word "NATO", which altogether sums up to the 27 European Union States.

In the light of recent world events, the US needs to in the long run back off from Europe and let the European peoples determine their own future without regards to US interests and foreign policies. In other words, the US must take a strategic political backseat in NATO (regarding Europe) and let the European friends and allies use NATO as their own defence vehicle to perfect their own Union, with their own internal European structures.

The democratic, secular, capitalist European States will always stand by their American cousins, Article 5 or not, but America must never use NATO to prevent or block internal European military or political integration.

Patrick

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Maryland, USA

March 5, 2011

Patrick in Maryland writes:

I like what was said about working together.

The only way were going to have the capacity, too keep up with the needs of our growing countries,is by working together.